


No Sharing At The Breakfast Table

by Be_the_Spark



Category: Humans (TV)
Genre: F/M, Humans Creativity Night, Leotilda, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-08
Updated: 2018-07-08
Packaged: 2019-06-07 02:22:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15208739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Be_the_Spark/pseuds/Be_the_Spark
Summary: Based after Leo and Mattie's night together in S3E03.





	No Sharing At The Breakfast Table

**Author's Note:**

> Humans Creativity Night Prompt words: Secret & Dream

Breakfast with the Hawkins family felt like a game of musical chairs. Amidst a background of noisy chatter and announcements on the television, whoever was the first to reach the bathroom to wash up left less time for the rest of the brood, and that level of the game ran clumsily into one where Laura Hawkins oversaw breakfast. Stanley, the orange-eyed unit, had prepared juice and cereal for all four residents, yet came up short for their unexpected house guest.

“Laura, I am afraid your family’s default choice in morning meals has run out. I will prepare a bowl of fruit and coffee for your visitor with your permission.” For a Synth built to never go beyond the impersonal, his automated regret sounded sincere.

Laura Hawkins, harried by the prospect of her latest Dryden board meeting, said while fastening the buttons on her coat, “Yes, Stanley, please do that.”

She turned to the aforementioned guest then, who sat at the table next to the youngest Hawkins, Sophie. Unlike Sophie, Leo had nothing set before him but a spoon and a napkin. He wasn’t upset by it, and hardly hungry. The way Laura was looking at him, however, prompted a discomfited position.

Leo had been trying to avert from any glancing to the young woman sitting across from him, but he did so once and his eyes were drawn. Mattie’s wide, hazelnut-brown gaze was already there. The expression was soft, like they had been the night before.

He remembered following her into her room that night, suddenly aware and tingly and alive from knowing. He’d known acceptance before, he’d known care and love. But he’d never known what it was like to be  _wanted._ Mattie’s earlier confession to him, revealing that her worst fear was losing him, shook everything he knew to its core.

Mia’s words from hours prior to that moment had come cycling back to him.  _Find out who you are. Find out what you want._

Leo still wasn’t entirely sure what he wanted. But what he didn’t want was to lose Mattie either. The way she’d stormed off after blurting out her implied feelings, it seemed she might have felt hurt and embarrassed that he hadn’t figured out the truth sooner.

How could he have? He’d been too preoccupied with his own personal endangerment, with the burden of leading his family to safety and the guilt that he couldn’t. Then there had been the small matter of Hester introducing his brain to a spike.

He’d never had to worry about other people before. The love of the Synths his father had made for him had been certain, absolute.

But now things between Leo and them were somewhat distant, perhaps strained. And now, here he was in the room of this soft, pretty girl who’d been there for him all along. Who wanted to help him. Who wanted him.

With one swift action, partly calculated and partly impulsive, Leo had leaned by as she passed him, carrying a ball of dirty laundry and an internal storm of emotion, and caught her lips with his. She’d dropped the clothes, surprised. But he only had to wait for a moment, scarcely breathing in anticipation, before she put her face to his, and he slowly suckled her mouth.

This should have been his first time, he thought to himself while he pulled off his shirt. Locking her eyes with his, Mattie fingered the scar on his side, the gentle trepidation confirming away all of his past fears. She would never hurt him.

With every touch, every gesture, she turned everything that Hester had done into nothing. She was everything.

Losing themselves in one another, they had reached her bed before she paused. Lowered her face. “I never…” She whispered. “I don’t want to be bad at it.”

Leo wanted to smile. This girl was like a mirror, the other face of his own coin. He swallowed the knot in his throat. “You could never be bad for me.” And they fell together, slowly, as they had done since the beginning.

Staring at her now, though, he had to wonder if that was just some vivid dream. He tried to play it out in his head, mull over the details. But Laura was hovering, and they were out of cereal. She didn’t know. And for some reason, they needed to keep it that way. Mattie had told him he’d only get to hang around for a few days. Was that Laura’s doing?

Then, from across the table, Mattie Hawkins smiled at him. Shy, like she didn’t wish to let on to any secret happiness. She pushed her untouched bowl in front of him. “Mum,” she said. “I’ll take the fruit and coffee.”

He raised his eyebrows questioningly.

“Wouldn’t want you to feel left out,” she said, sounding quiet.

His mouth lifted in a matching smile. If this was a dream, he didn’t want to wake from it. Ever.


End file.
